Freedom of expression; does it excist?
I know less to nothing about politics. I see myself more as a thinker and observer. Thinking about why we should be very careful when expressing our opinions and observing what the consequences could be from the other side.
Recently we saw the incident about the 15 year old Malala Yousafzai, she got shot either because she wanted to kill illiteracy among girls in her village or because she mentioned, the US president, Obama as her rolemodel. We do not know what the exact reason could have been of her being shot but we do know how much this news got spread around the world and how people were praying for her to recover soon. They all condemned the attack on her by Taliban.
But, if I now turn the situation and see myself as Malala Yousafzai and express my opinion on one of the social network website, what will or might be the consequence for me? I might not get killed, as I live in the Netherlands where we have the right to express our opinion, but what else could happen? There is a consequence that I might get fired from my job if they come to know about my opinion on the bombing in Gaza or Obama being re- elected.
Now if we go back to Malala Yousafzai, she might have been shot because she was a danger for Taliban, they might have seen her as a threat for spreading the wrong message to young girls and letting them hate Taliban and love Obama.
Do you see any difference between both the situations? I don't. In both situations there is a fear surrounding us. At one situation we have the fear to get shot and at the other we have the fear to get fired. The company I (we) work for could see us as a danger, because we think on a certain way about a certain situation.
The message which I am trying to give and what I have learned after so many years is that there does not exist anything such as "Freedom of expression". Try it at your school, tell any of your lecturers what you dont like about them and see if they will behave at the same way as they did before. Even with close friends, families. We ourselves might behave differently.
Written by:
Zaima Khalid
International Business and Management student at INHolland University of applied science.
I know less to nothing about politics. I see myself more as a thinker and observer. Thinking about why we should be very careful when expressing our opinions and observing what the consequences could be from the other side.
Recently we saw the incident about the 15 year old Malala Yousafzai, she got shot either because she wanted to kill illiteracy among girls in her village or because she mentioned, the US president, Obama as her rolemodel. We do not know what the exact reason could have been of her being shot but we do know how much this news got spread around the world and how people were praying for her to recover soon. They all condemned the attack on her by Taliban.
But, if I now turn the situation and see myself as Malala Yousafzai and express my opinion on one of the social network website, what will or might be the consequence for me? I might not get killed, as I live in the Netherlands where we have the right to express our opinion, but what else could happen? There is a consequence that I might get fired from my job if they come to know about my opinion on the bombing in Gaza or Obama being re- elected.
Now if we go back to Malala Yousafzai, she might have been shot because she was a danger for Taliban, they might have seen her as a threat for spreading the wrong message to young girls and letting them hate Taliban and love Obama.
Do you see any difference between both the situations? I don't. In both situations there is a fear surrounding us. At one situation we have the fear to get shot and at the other we have the fear to get fired. The company I (we) work for could see us as a danger, because we think on a certain way about a certain situation.
The message which I am trying to give and what I have learned after so many years is that there does not exist anything such as "Freedom of expression". Try it at your school, tell any of your lecturers what you dont like about them and see if they will behave at the same way as they did before. Even with close friends, families. We ourselves might behave differently.
Written by:
Zaima Khalid
International Business and Management student at INHolland University of applied science.
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